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Nicos Weg review: can Deutsche Welle's free course really get you to B1?

A free, well-built A1 to B1 course that learners have used to pass real exams. It leaves speaking and writing to you, and it stops at B1.

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The Nicos Weg A1 course page on Deutsche Welle's site, showing the series title card over a still from the first episode

Nicos Weg is Deutsche Welle’s free German course. Deutsche Welle (DW) is Germany’s public international broadcaster. The course follows Nico, a Spaniard who arrives in Germany, through a video story. It has three levels, A1, A2 and B1, the first three of the six levels on the CEFR, the European scale that runs from A1 (beginner) to C2. Each level has about 76 short lessons and a final test. Every lesson has a video clip, exercises, a grammar page, a vocabulary list with translations and a script of the dialogue.1 It all sits on DW’s Learn German website and in the DW Learn German app. It is free, with no paid tier. The films also run on YouTube, but without the exercises.

Is Nicos Weg worth it?

Verdict. A complete, free course from zero to B1 that works as your main course, as long as you add speaking and writing practice yourself.

Best for beginners who want a free, structured main course and will do the exercises, not just watch the films.

Less suitable for people who want every rule explained before they practise it, anyone who needs their speaking and writing corrected, and learners already at B1, because the course stops there.

Nicos Weg at a glance

Dimension Band Why
Price Strong Free, with no paid tier
Structure Strong Learners in classes say it matches their A1 and A2 textbooks
Listening Strong The gain learners report most, though beginners find the films fast
Grammar Good Explanations are praised; one learner found too little practice
Vocabulary Good Wide, with translations; the vocabulary trainer covers A1 and A2 only
Speaking Weak No one to talk to; learners who passed exams practised elsewhere
Writing Weak Little practice in building your own sentences, and no correction
App Mixed Little more than the website inside an app; reviewers since 2018 prefer a computer

Is Nicos Weg too hard if you are a beginner?

Nicos Weg is built for complete beginners, but expect the films to feel fast at first. DW says the course is for people with no German as well as people with some.2 Its first lessons are greetings and spelling, and the first exercises ask simple things, such as where Nico is and who he is talking to.

Several beginners say the exercises were manageable but the dialogue was too quick to follow by ear, even after finishing an A1 textbook. With the script or captions, they understood most of it.3 Not everyone agrees: a college language-lab blogger found the pace slow enough to follow.4 The official description of A1 listening is understanding familiar words when people speak slowly and clearly.5 Not following every line of a film at A1 is normal.

What helped, in learners’ reports, was the help already on the page. New words appear in blue with a translation and audio. Each lesson has the full script, and the site can be set to English.6 Learners describe reading the script, turning on captions, pausing to look up phrases and replaying a clip until the joined-up words came apart.3

Two other things catch people out:

  • Starting at A2 too early. DW has a placement test that suggests where to start. Three learners whom it sent to A2 found it too hard. One went back to A1, and A2 made much more sense the second time.7
  • Skipping lessons by mistake. One learner kept meeting words they had never seen. The list of lessons is laid out in columns, and by reading straight down they had skipped the lessons that carry on in the next column. They had done only about a third of each section.8 If the exercises seem to use words you were never taught, check that you have not skipped any.

Can Nicos Weg really get you to B1?

Learners have passed real B1 exams after using it, but none did it with Nicos Weg alone. Finishing the course is also not the same as holding a certificate.

The course’s own final test is DW’s. It gives you a certificate to download, and DW says plainly that this certificate is not officially recognised.6 For an official certificate, DW points you to a recognised exam, such as the Goethe-Zertifikat from the Goethe-Institut, Germany’s cultural institute, or telc, another widely accepted German exam. Learners who passed DW’s B1 test agree that it is not proof of B1: one said it showed they could read at B1, but not speak at it.9

The external passes all came with other work:

  • One learner went from almost nothing to B1 in six months. They had six months of school German five years before, and studied four to five hours almost every day. They used the A1 and A2 courses to pass the Goethe A2 exam after three months, with 92 out of 100. They finished the B1 course three weeks before the Goethe B1 exam, then spent those weeks on mock exams, writing checked with online tools and timed speaking practice. They passed every part.10
  • Another learner reports starting from zero and passing Goethe B1 with Nicos Weg, plus regular speaking practice and German-dubbed TV.11
  • A third passed telc B1 first time. They worked through all three levels two or three times, and listened to German rap and YouTube alongside.12

Two of the three practised speaking outside the course, and the first practised writing too. The Goethe exams test speaking and writing as well as listening and reading.13 Learners who finished the course without that practice describe a split: they rated their reading and listening at B1 and their speaking and writing lower.14

At A2 the picture is the same: two learners passed the Goethe A2 exam with Nicos Weg plus speaking and writing practice from model tests.15

There is no Nicos Weg B2. DW lists its B2 material as separate products, such as Ticket nach Berlin, and no learner reports reaching B2 on this course.16 For what each level asks of you, see the A2 guide and the B1 guide. If you want a taught course with exams, see our Goethe-Institut review.

How long does Nicos Weg take?

DW gives no figure for how long a level takes. The answer depends on how many lessons you do a day and how long each one takes you.

Most learners who timed themselves say a lesson with its exercises takes 30 minutes to an hour. Not everyone is that fast: one beginner took an hour and a half to three hours on every A1 lesson, and longer when they dug into the grammar.17 At one lesson a day, the 76 lessons in a level take about two and a half months, or seven to eight months for all three. That is the faster pace, before you repeat anything or add speaking practice. If your lessons run long, expect more.

Learners report A1 times from about 40 days to three months of daily study.1819 The learner who reached the B1 exam in six months studied four to five hours a day. For fitting German around a job, see our study plan for busy people.

What does Nicos Weg do well?

It gives you a complete, well-ordered course for nothing. Learners taking classes say its A1 and A2 match their textbooks closely, and some watch each level’s film after the class as a check on their listening.20 Learners also praise the grammar explanations as clear and like the short culture notes at the end of lessons.21

The story keeps people coming back. Learners describe wanting to see the next episode before they had finished the exercises, and caring what happens to the characters. One student who later moved to Germany recognised phrases from the course at the post office and when finding a flat.22

Some learners rate it above the big apps. Learners who had used Babbel, a paid app, preferred Nicos Weg for its larger amount of material and its story, and found Babbel dull next to it.23 Others rated it above Duolingo.24 All of them used other resources too, so these are preferences, not tests. Our Babbel review covers what Babbel does well.

Where does Nicos Weg fall short?

Speaking and writing are left to you. You never talk to anyone, and nobody reads what you write. Learners who used it for months found the writing exercises and the chances to build their own sentences too few.25 DW does make classroom worksheets with speaking and writing tasks, but they need a teacher and other students.26

Grammar practice can feel thin. The explanations are good, but one learner halfway through A1 found too few exercises to make the grammar stick and kept forgetting earlier lessons. They bought a workbook.27

It stops at B1. There is nothing after it in the same style. From B1 everything is in German, including the explanations and instructions, and the vocabulary trainer stops, because DW only offers it at A1 and A2.6 A learner who had moved past the course wished DW would make one like it for B2 and C1.28

Use a computer if you can. App Store reviewers have said for years that the app is little more than the website inside an app. In 2018 one missed offline lessons and easy word lookup. In 2023 another found their typed answers cut off in the exercises and went back to a laptop. In 2025 a learner reported that the vocabulary trainer, DW’s flashcard tool, had stopped working; DW said a fix was coming.29

Where do learners disagree?

Should a course test grammar before it explains it?

This is the biggest argument about Nicos Weg. Some exercises ask you to use a form before the lesson’s grammar page explains it. One A1 learner complained about this. Their example was an exercise on the past tense of sein (“to be”), shown below. They wanted the grammar and vocabulary first. They said they did listen to the clips, but the audio was fast and the German was hard to follow without looking words up.

The disputed exercise on DW’s site: a gap-fill dialogue between Nico and Nawin with dropdown menus for the missing past-tense forms of sein, under an instruction to listen to the audio first

Other learners in the same thread disagreed, for two reasons:

  • It is on purpose. You meet a form in the clip, guess what it means, try it, and get the rule afterwards. Learners who like this say mistakes are part of how you work the language out. A native speaker in the thread said this is how most language learning works.30
  • The help is already there. One learner pointed out that the audio at the top of that exercise contains every form it asks for. Each exercise also links to the grammar page, the vocabulary and the script, and you can read the grammar first if you prefer.31

Neither side is wrong about their own experience. If you want rules first, open the grammar page before the clip. Nothing stops you.

Is the story fun or annoying?

Most learners who mention the story like it, but not all. One found the lessons so boring they dropped them and just rewatched the films as listening practice. Another stopped because the sitcom style irritated them.32 If that is you, the films still work as listening material.

How do people who rate Nicos Weg use it, and what do they add?

  1. Use the website, not just the YouTube films. The films on YouTube have captions, but the exercises, grammar pages, vocabulary lists and scripts are only on DW’s site and app.33
  2. Prepare, watch, then do the exercises. One learner who did a lesson a day previewed the vocabulary and its audio the day before, watched with captions, read the script aloud where they lost the thread, then did the exercises.34 Others read the grammar page first.31
  3. Keep notes, and write your own sentences. Learners kept notebooks for vocabulary and grammar, and one wrote short texts of their own with each lesson’s new words.35 The learner who passed Goethe B1 copied out every grammar explanation and looked for extra exercises on the topics they found hard.10
  4. Repeat what didn’t stick. The learner who passed telc B1 restarted after A1 and A2 because they had forgotten too much, and went through the course two or three times in all.12
  5. Get speaking and writing practice elsewhere. This is where learners spend money, if they spend it. Some used a teacher from the start: one did four or five lessons between sessions, wrote a summary of each video and brought their questions. Others started one-to-one lessons around A2, when talking without preparing was still hard.36 One learner preparing for an au pair visa paid for ten lessons before the A1 exam, kept a German diary and talked with their host family.37

Learners also add Anki, a flashcard app that shows you each word again just before you would forget it, and a grammar workbook or a grammar blog such as Your Daily German.27 For more options, see our recommended resources. If you would rather have speaking built in from the start, our reviews of the Goethe-Institut and of Lingoda, an online class service, cover paid classes and their prices.

Learners who finished B1 have moved on to exam practice, or to Ticket nach Berlin, a DW series listed at B2, which one found much harder.28 The B2 guide covers the next level.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Deutsche Welle, Nicos Weg A1, A2 and B1 course pages, checked 9 November 2026. ↩

  2. Deutsche Welle, Join Nico and his friends to learn German, 2017. ↩

  3. Regarding Nico Weg course, r/German; I finished watching Nicos Weg A1 and I had a hard time understanding them, r/German. ↩ ↩2

  4. Resource for A1 German students, Reed College LangLabbies. ↩

  5. Council of Europe, CEFR self-assessment grid, in a European Language Portfolio. ↩

  6. Deutsche Welle, DW Learn German help, checked 9 November 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Did I start at the wrong level in Nicos Weg (A2)?, r/German; a learner who went back to A1, r/German. ↩

  8. Nicos Weg question, r/German. ↩

  9. Has anyone only used and completed Nicos Weg?, r/German; DW Nicos Weg B1 Abschlusszertifikat, r/German. ↩

  10. From (almost) nothing to A2 in 3 months with Nicos Weg, r/German, and the same learner’s B1 follow-up. ↩ ↩2

  11. Is Nicos Weg enough for A1 and A2?, r/German. ↩

  12. Is Nicos Weg enough to learn German?, r/German. ↩ ↩2

  13. Goethe-Institut, Goethe-Zertifikat A2. ↩

  14. How much time does it take to complete the DW course Nicos Weg?, r/German. ↩

  15. Is Nicos Weg enough to pass Goethe A2 test?, r/German. ↩

  16. Deutsche Welle, B1 and B2 courses, checked 9 November 2026. ↩

  17. How many lessons of Nicos Weg per day?, r/German; Nicos Weg, r/German. ↩

  18. How much time does it take to complete the DW course Nicos Weg?, r/German. ↩

  19. Endlich habe ich Nicos Weg A1 beendet, r/German. ↩

  20. What’s your review on Nicos Weg?, r/German; Has anyone only used and completed Nicos Weg?, r/German. ↩

  21. A learner using it beside a class, r/German. ↩

  22. Nicos Weg is so cool and wholesome, r/German; a student’s account of preparing to study in Germany, note.com. ↩

  23. Nicos Weg or Babbel subscription?, r/German; Nico’s Weg > Babbel, am I crazy?, r/German. ↩

  24. Nikos Weg, r/German; Why is everyone recommending Nico’s Weg course?, r/German. ↩

  25. Is Nicos Weg good primary study material?, r/German; From (almost) nothing to A2 in 3 months with Nicos Weg, r/German. ↩

  26. Deutsche Welle, Nicos Weg B1 teacher’s worksheet. ↩

  27. For people who used Nicos Weg, how did you practise grammar and writing?, r/German; Nico’s Weg > Babbel, am I crazy?, r/German. ↩ ↩2

  28. Nicos Weg A1, A2 and B1 bitesize show with exercises, Duolingo Forum Archive; Burning Smoke: Q1 2021 review, Jeremy Kong. ↩ ↩2

  29. DW Learn German reviews, US App Store; DW Learn German reviews, German App Store. ↩

  30. Why is everyone recommending Nico’s Weg course?, r/German; Regarding Nico Weg course, r/German. ↩

  31. Why is everyone recommending Nico’s Weg course?, r/German; Regarding Nico Weg course, r/German. ↩ ↩2

  32. So Nicos Weg genuinely is really good, r/German; Nicos Weg ending, r/German. ↩

  33. Deutsche Welle, Nicos Weg A1 full film, YouTube. ↩

  34. How to properly learn German using Nicos Weg, r/German. ↩

  35. Did you take notes while doing Nicos Weg?, r/German. ↩

  36. How do/did you use Nicos Weg?, r/German; Is Nicos Weg enough to learn German?, r/German. ↩

  37. How I learnt A1 German, Oswald Writes on Medium. ↩